Storage consolidation architectures allow businesses to efficiently allocate storage resources across the enterprise as well as rapidly expand storage capacity, performance, and availability to meet the demands of a growing and changing business. One such architecture may use storage area network (“SAN”) based storage systems. A SAN based storage system may provide multiple, virtual volumes that may be mapped to various user systems. For example, in an enterprise with hundreds of users, a single SAN device may be used to host a virtual volume from which each user may boot and execute software. The user machines may be thin clients connected to the associated storage volumes over a network.
Since storage consolidation may involve one, or a few, storage servers or SAN devices answering to multiple clients, hard disk access at the SAN device may significantly increase. This may be particularly so during peak times for the booting of clients, such as in the morning. During these peak times, client boot times may be adversely impacted, negatively affecting productivity.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is presented.